"John Banks is one of the UK's most prolific audiobook narrators, working for the likes of Big Finish, Audible, Random House and Games Workshop.

He is a true multi-voice, creating everything from monsters to marauding aliens.

He is also an accomplished stage and TV actor."

audible.co.uk 2018

Hello...

...I'm John Banks - welcome to my website.

The majority of my working life has been spent in the theatre with companies including
York Theatre Royal, Cheltenham Everyman, Sheffield Crucible, Bristol Old Vic, Manchester Royal Exchange and the National Theatre in London.

Television work includes Emmerdale, Coronation Street, and 'Allo, Allo!'. I have also worked on a number of radio drama and comedy productions with the BBC.

Since March 2009, I have enjoyed playing a huge variety of characters in more than 270* audio-drama stories with Big Finish Productions, together with The Black Library/Games Workshop, details of which can be found in the postings below.


There are also details listed here of the 214* audio books & stories I've recorded since March 2013,
including the unabridged New Revised Standard Version of The Bible, for companies including audible.co.uk, Hachette, Audible Studios, Podium Audio Publishing, HarperCollins, RNIB, W.F. Howes, Little Brown Group, Penguin Random House, Games Workshop, Orion, Fantom Films & Ladbroke Audio.

(*figures at April 2021)

I hope you find something of interest here and come back soon for further updates.


For all posts, reviews and audio samples, please scroll down...

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The Fall of Babel - click image above for link to audible

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Throne of Light: Dawn of Fire Book 4
Release Date: 13th November 2021

Soul Wars

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Friday 12 December 2014

The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes


Yo-ho-ho! Christmas has come early for me this year; indeed, after months of anticipation (mine at least!), the latest Holmes adventure is now available, The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes.

 Sherlock Holmes had many secrets. This is the greatest of them.

Our knowledge of the life and career of Mr Sherlock Holmes is necessarily partial and inexact. Riddled with lacunae and ambiguities, its parameters are defined chiefly by what his friend and colleague, Dr John Watson, saw fit to record. 

One era in particular – those enigmatic years in which, believed dead at the Reichenbach Falls, the Great Detective roved the world incognito – has been shrouded in obscurity and doubt, the particulars of that time too terrible and too strange to be set down in full.


At least, that is, until now…



Part One: Poppyland
It is October, 1921. Dr John Watson, now almost seventy, has accustomed himself to a life of retirement. He is surprised, then, to encounter his old friend, Mr Sherlock Holmes, rising out of the early evening mist like a wraith. There are things they have to discuss, he says, matters from the distant past. It is important, he says, that Watson hears at last a full account of what happened to Holmes during his years away from England when, believed by the world to be dead following his battle with Professor Moriarty, he travelled incognito overseas…

Part Two: At the Gates of Shambhala
1892. At the heart of Tibet, a world away from London, where a grieving Dr Watson is battling demons of his own, stands an ancient monastery, abandoned for generations but now the source of rumours of the most peculiar and terrible kind. For strangers have lately invaded this place and pressed it into service for their dark schemes. Those who dwell nearby have come to live in fear and sorrow. What good fortune, then, that a certain noted Norwegian explorer should happen to have found himself in the vicinity…













Part Three: The Man in the Moonlight
Mr Sherlock Holmes is the kind of man whom it is practically impossible to imagine ever having been a child, so fixed and set is his nature. Yet even he was once an infant, his childhood as fraught with peril as his adult life. That time, long past, still haunts him – one element most of all, the figure of a stranger, standing without and gazing upwards, his thin, pale face haloed by moonlight.

  Part Four: The Tragedy of Pargetter Square
Here is where it ends: with a murderer in Pargetter Square, with the detective and a tyrant come face to face in Baker Street, with desperate ambition and wickedness incarnate, with an assassin’s bullet and with old friends working, unknowingly, as one.

Yet what is an ending if not a beginning by a different name?




 Nicholas Briggs Sherlock Holmes - Sherrinford Holme  Richard Earl Dr Watson  
John Banks Inspector Lestrade - Colonel Sebastian Moran Tim Bentinck Mycroft Holmes  
Gemma Whelan Mary Watson Jemma Churchill Helena Eidelmann  
Terrence Hardiman Dr Esau Thorne Nicholas Chambers The Reverend Samuel Griffiths 
Joannah Tincey Miss Jessica Hendrick Dai Tabuchi Dorje  
David Killick Lord Colney, The Earl of Pettigree

Written by Jonathan Barnes
Directed by Ken Bentley  


December 21st update: an extract from today's SFcrowsnest review:

" John Banks is multi-tasking, both as the superb Lestrade and also the villainous and no doubt moustache twirling Sebastian Moran. They sound completely different and I bow to his talent."

" This is rapidly turning into appointment audio with this release eagerly awaited by fans and hopefully new listeners. If you haven’t jumped yet then you really should."

Sue Davies

The full review can be read by following this link: SFcrowsnest: The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes


December 18th update: an extract from today's Sci-Fi Bulletin review:

" Director Ken Bentley has assembled a very strong cast alongside Briggs and Earl – who both excel in this, displaying passionate sides to their characters that shake the speakers. John Banks as Lestrade and Tim Bentinck’s Mycroft are great foils for Earl, while Gemma Whelan gives us a very feisty Mary Watson; Jemma Churchill, Terrence Hardiman, Nicholas Chambers, Joannah Tincey, Dai Tabuchi and David Killick all play to the melodramatic nature of the story without ever letting it go over the top (I’m deliberately not talking further about their characters so as not to spoil the many twists!). 

There’s a cinematic scope to the story, and Jamie Robertson’s sound design ensures that even with the quick cutting that the script requires, we’re never unsure where we are (unless that’s the point!).

You’ll have to listen to this to understand how and why it qualifies as Sci-Fi Bulletin territory – but I can’t wait for the sequel which promises to be more terrifying than a certain spectral hound… "

Verdict: Another triumph for Briggs, Earl and the team. 10/10

Paul Simpson

The full review can be read by following this link:  Sci-Fi Bulletin: The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes

No comments:

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Reviews & comments:

The Malazan Empire

Over the course of this 8 book series, the amazing John Banks has had to create and voice 648 distinct characters!

Neil Gardner - producer

The Door In The Wall & War of The Worlds

Not often I buy another version of an audiobook I own, but after hearing John Banks' narration of The Door in the Wall by Ladbroke Audio, I had to buy their version of The War of the Worlds. Banks has a great reading voice.

Andy Frankham-Allen - writer

The Books of Babel: Senlin Ascends, Arm of The Sphinx & The Hod King

Mr. Banks does superb work, and I recommend the audiobooks wholeheartedly!

Josiah Bancroft - writer

Mervyn Stone: The Axeman Cometh

John Banks is a voice genius...

Nev Fountain - writer

Mervyn Stone... played by the note-perfect John Banks.

Matt Hills - Reviews in Time and Space

Dr. Who: The Sleeping City

I also must draw attention to John Banks who is an exceptional voice artist and in this one story performs more characters that I can count. ... it is listening to episodes like this one that really do let his talents shine through.

Tony Jones - Red Rocket Rising

Highlander:

...playing several parts, was the brilliant Big Finish regular John Banks - it was as if there were about 40 different actors in the other booth.

James Moran - writer

I went for the best of the best and brought in voice artiste extraordinaire John Banks.

Paul Spragg - producer

Vienna:

...also features the mind - bogglingly versatile and reliable John Banks

Jonathan Morris - writer

Dead Funny:

The acting is first rate… wonderfully played by John Banks as Richard – his impersonation of Eric Morecambe is worth the admission money alone.

Beverly Greenberg: Bolton Evening News

Mr. Happiness:

This early and unfamiliar play by David Mamet is a character study of a 1930s radio counsellor, dispensing suave advice to his devoted listeners. John Banks brings out the wry comedy of this – comedy quite unappreciated by the character – with a clever range of gesture and vocal tone.

Jeremy Kingston: The Times


All My Sons:

This is a beautifully crafted piece ...and it affords a wonderful opportunity for John Readman* to do his All-American Boy act as Chris Keller. This most polished and well observed performance as the blighted son of a blighted father must rank as one of his finest accomplishments yet. ( * see Profile)

The Stage

The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes

Kudos should also go to John Banks. Lestrade can be a thankless part, but Banks rose to the challenge, playing a pivotal role in this decades long arc.

Raissa Devereux - SciFiPulse

The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes

John Banks is multi-tasking, both as the superb Lestrade and also the villainous and no doubt moustache twirling Sebastian Moran. They sound completely different and I bow to his talent.

Sue Davies - SFcrowsnest


Further reviews and comments are included with specific postings throughout the site.

The War Doctor

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December 2015